The Iris
by lighttheway
Summary: Ch 2: "I didn’t understand what had happened that night. But I would find out. I would unlock those secrets Luke had left behind. But until I did, that last memory would forever haunt me."
1. Prologue: First Memory

Here's the prologue. Hope you enjoy (;

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Prologue: First Memory

_My name is Ayame_

The first memories of most people go back to when they were three or four. Some people claim to remember even earlier than that. My first memory happened when I was just one year old.

It was a large windowless room. I remember that everyone was standing, because there were no chairs. Bright lights on the high ceiling shined down at us, and all along the walls were painting of beautiful men and women. There were a lot of people standing around me, I was in someone's arms. They were holding me gently, cuddling me, making me feel very secure and comfortable.

I was wrapped up in some kind of cloth, I think it was a cloak. Probably Hermes's. It was warm, and I was half asleep, my eyes were closed.

I remember a melodic voice saying, "It's just a baby."

"She just turned one." A rougher, deeper voice answered. The speaker was closer to me than the other. "Her parents were at the market, so it wasn't too hard of a job."

"You brought a baby?" It was more of a protest than a question, and this speaker was far away. The rumble of a man.

"I hope you did leave a letter of some sort." Someone commented mildly.

"We had no choice. She has the mark. Look, see for yourselves." Then someone pulled my arm out from the bundle I was in. I gave a little cry, it didn't hurt, but the cold air had rushed in.

"Don't!" The speaker was the one holding me; I could feel the vibration of her body. "Don't hurt her."

"See for yourselves." The man was turning my arm now. I opened my eyes to see what was so interesting. Everyone crowded around me, and I tried to take my arm back. The cold air had already seeped in.

The man let go of my arm and the person holding me gently tucked it back in for me. She patted the cloth around me to make me more comfortable, then patted my forehead. I gurgled with pleasure.

"That's fine, Apollo, but... We already have the four children to look after, and a baby is so much more work to take care of. Couldn't you have—" I closed my eyes again. The harsh lights hurt. The gentle hand continued to caress me.

"Are you questioning my decision?"

This voice was full of authority, the last word echoed.

Silence fell. After several moments, I heard a quiet shuffling toward me, then someone said softly, "What a beautiful baby... what's her name?"

"Her parents named her 'Ayame'. Fitting, isn't it?" Someone replied, laughing.

That's the last thing I remember before falling asleep.

I've pondered for hours on this single memory, run it through again and again in my head until I had practically memorized every detail. The color of the floor, their expressions, the vivid colors of the painting on the walls.

I tried so hard to remember more, to remember anything, _anything_ before that, but I can't. It's like the time I spent with my parents had magically been erased. I wish, so much, that I could just remember _one _thing about them. One tiny little thing that I would be able to hold on to.

But there isn't anything.

I had been taken from my parents when I was only one year old.

Who were my parents?

Were they kind and loving?

Or were they harsh and abusive?

I guess I'll never know.

But they did leave one thing with me.

My name.

Ayame.

The clan did try to change it.

I cried, screamed, threw tantrums. I would not let them take my name away from me. They gave me their arguments, they screamed and argued and fought with a child. But they did not win. I would not let them take my name away from me.

Sure. When it comes down to it, 'Ayame' and 'Iris' are basically the same name. They mean the same thing, don't they?

But to me, one is precious. Because it's the only thing that I had before being brought into the clan. And that means a lot to me.

My name is Ayame.

And it always will be.

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Hope you liked it. Please review :3 If you have any questions, comments, complaints, etc. feel free to ask/say them X)


	2. Chapter 1: Where to?

Sorry for the late update T T I've had so much stuff to do these past couple days... anyhoos, enjoy ^^

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Soul Eater. But I own Ayame 8D

**Chapter One: Where to?**

_Where would I go from here?_

A dark night. Mist swirled around us. A dark alley, tall buildings on either side of us, blocking our way out. Out of this nightmare.

Footsteps. The sound echoed. I shivered.

He stood in front of me, tall and stiff, nervous.

"Are you ready?"

Although he whispered, the sound seemed to crash onto my ears.

I nodded, numb.

"Let's go." He transformed into a weapon and landed lightly in my outstretched hands.

I clutched the sword and squinted, looking for our opponents. It too dark. Why was it so dark?

I looked up. The sky was a stretch of black velvet. No stars, no moon.

I griped the sword tighter, suddenly afraid.

How was I able to see when there was no light?

It didn't matter, not right now. Because the foot steps got louder every passing second.

"Here they come." The dark blade reflected his face. "Get ready Ayame."

His blue eyes were wide open, he was on guard. Yet his lips were pulled into a smile. A smirk that still haunted me.

Then they came into view. He gasped, then yelled.

"_AYAME_!"

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"_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH_!"

My own screams woke me up. My eyes flew open, and I looked around wildly, panting. I had broken into a cold sweat, and my damp hair clung to my face.

The street was still dark, and only a few people were out and about at this time of the morning. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself.

"It was just a dream. A dream." I muttered, leaning against the wall. I shook my head, trying to get those vivid images out of my mind. I could still see his face when I closed me eyes...

"Hey, get out of here!"

I opened my eyes to see a stout man standing in front of me, a set of keys in his hands. He frowned, apparently annoyed at me.

"What?" I drawled back.

"I can't have homeless people sleeping in front of my cafe. Get out!" The man shouted.

Homeless? Me?

"Go on, you heard me!" The man's face was becoming steadily redder.

"I'm not homeless." I replied, smirking. "I have an apartment."

"Go sleep there then!"

The topic was straying to dangerous areas. I switched the subject. "You sell coffee?"

The man was startled. "Yeah. But I'm not giving you any on the house*, if that's what you're asking."

"I don't take charity." I snapped. I stood up and dusted off my jeans, then smiled at the man. "Well?"

"Well what?" The man looked thoroughly confused.

I laughed softly. "Aren't ya going to open up your cafe so you can sell me some coffee?"

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"Will that be all?"

The man placed a large mug of coffee on the table.

"You got any cake or donuts? Something sweet?"

"I have some coffee cakes." The man offered.

"Bring me a couple of those then." I replied, picking up the steaming mug.

"Sure." The man waddled away.

Smiling, I took a small sip of the hot coffee. Once I had proved to him I could pay, he had lost his hostility, and served me with a smile. People were so fickle.

"Careful. The coffee's hot."

The man's warning came too late. I winced and put the mug down, having burnt my tongue.

The man chuckled, and put down a plate of coffee cakes. "Anything else?"

I shook my head and he went back to his counter, where he sat down to read the paper.

I broke off a piece of the cake and nibbled at it. I stared out the window at the people passing by, my mind wandering. A few people ambled into the cafe, smiling and laughing.

I had lived on the streets for two weeks. Where would I go from here? Back to LA? Back to the apartment?

No, I wasn't ready for that. I sighed, and broke off another piece of the coffee cake. Back to the clan?

Definitely not. I didn't want to live their way of life. Although I _would_ have to stop avoiding them.

Smiling, I took a cautious sip of the coffee. It wasn't so hot anymore, and it warmed my body.

Then should I just move on?

The thought stuck with me and I contemplated it while I finished my breakfast. After laying a bill on the table, I quickly left the small cafe.

I used a payphone to call a cab, and thought hard while waiting for it to arrive. Did I really want to do this? Was I ready?

When I cab came, I slid into the backseat.

"Where to, miss?"

I paused for only a second, crushing my last doubts.

"Death City, please."

Maybe it was time to pay Shinigami-sama a visit.

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*on the house: for free

There it is ;D I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to review ;)

Yes, I know. It's pretty short. Sorry about that.


	3. Chapter 2: Luke

**Hello ^^**

**I'm terribly sorry I haven't updated in quite a while... I think it's just about two months xD**

**I didn't know what I should do with this chapter.**

**Then I was in a Soul Eater slump.**

**And now I'm back :D**

**I STILL don't know what exactly I should have done with this chapter,**

**so it might look really random or out of place.**

**And it's not the best I've written.**

**Sorry D:**

**I didn't have a general idea to branch off of.**

**Anyhoos,**

**enjoy ^^**

**And merry christmas!**

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**Chapter Two: Luke**

_It was a cowardly death in escape._

"Where do you think you're going?"

I knew that voice. Shit. I was in so much trouble.

I let my hand fall from the car door, refusing to meet her eyes.

The taxi driver nervously looked from my face to hers.

"Get out."

She opened the door wider and stood back.

I sighed.

"Er—I changed my mind. Sorry." The taxi driver still looked confused, but I left it at that. I slowly got out of the car, dreading the lecture that would surely come once the taxi drove away.

"I hope she didn't cause you too much trouble." She smoothly handed the driver a crisp bill, and closed the car door.

The taxi began to drive away, taking with it my hope of ever seeing Shibusen again.

Then she turned to glare at me.

"Athena… Long time no see?" I smiled weakly.

"Do you know how _long_ we've been looking for you?" She closed her eyes, her expression frustrated.

"Who's we?" I grabbed at the chance to change the subject. Athena's temper was something that shouldn't be tested.

She sighed. She knew I was changing the subject, but she answered anyways. "It was Zephyrus at first, but you know how he is. It's me and Erebus now."

"Where's—"

"Where _else_ would he be? He's in the hotel, sitting in some dark corner." Athena rolled her eyes. Her irritation was clear.

Whenever Athena got annoyed, I was reminded of her age. She was only a year older than me, but normally, she seemed so much older—she was so wise and reasonable and calm. But when she got annoyed her youth began to show.

"He hasn't been helping you?" I laughed.

"He does. In the middle of the night. Then he calls at three in the morning to let me know that he's going to stop looking because it's starting to get light."

I laughed harder. That sounded just like Erebus. I hated to admit it, but as much as I avoided them and their meetings and parties, I missed them. They were my family.

"Anyways we have to get going, I'm supposed to—"

I frowned. "Wait."

Athena gave me a puzzled look.

"I don't get a lecture? No sincere letters or phone calls to apologize?" Everything I was dreading—where did it all go? It was almost a _tradition_. Me avoiding them, them finding me, me being lectured, me being forced to call up the others to apologize, then me going away again.

Athena laughed. "Not this time. I'm supposed to take you to see Shinigami-sama."

It took me a minute to understand the meaning of those words. It seemed as if the world had been flipped upside down. Athena should be dragging me home, not doing something she had been opposed to for the past five years!

"Yeah I know." Athena understood my expression. "But since the last time you've attended a meeting, lots of stuff has happened." She rolled her eyes again. A habit of hers that I was never really fond of. "And you know those meetings are mandatory."

"Like…?" It would take a miracle to change Zeus's mind about me being a technician.

"To put it very bluntly… they're useless." Athena sighed.

"Who?" I frowned. To be completely useless… it wasn't something I could imagine. The members of the clan fit together like gears in a clock—to be complete and working properly, everyone was needed—everyone had a part. No one could afford to be useless.

"The three new ones. Alectrona, Hebe, and Hygieia. Alectrona can only do the tradition: wake up Hypnos. Hebe is so _annoying_. She follows us around, doing little things for us, like a servant. And Hygieia…I think she had OCD." Athena frowned. "She _has_ to stay clean—she won't even go near Demeter."

"But… that means…" So this was why. We were terribly short on fighters. That's why I was needed.

"I mean, we're still training them and hoping something develops, but in the mean time, you're our backup plan. Well you, Demeter, and Nike. I'm supposed to take you to train at Shibusen—the other two training at home but we knew you wouldn't want to." Athena smiled, then hit the delicate subject. "So, where's Luke?"

Luke. So casual, so calm. Always smiling, laughing, making jokes. Luke.

"He's…unable to fight." I couldn't say it. Especially when they were counting on me like this… they had never depended on me much for anything before, except to run some errands or take a message.

"Why not? Is he hurt? We could have Asclepius—" Athena, always so reasonable.

"I don't think Asclepius can heal him." A bitter laugh escaped my mouth.

Athena struggled to read my expression. "Ayame… what's going on?"

"Luke is… dead." I stared at my fingers. "That's why I was going to Shibusen—to see if Shinigami-sama could find me another weapon."

Athena was shocked. It took a lot to shock her. "How?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I muttered.

Athena nodded slowly. "Let's go back to the hotel, we shouldn't stand here all day."

"Sure." I nodded. I felt terrible—like I had just lied to her. But it was true. I didn't want to talk about. But not for the reasons she thought it was.

I didn't want to talk about it because I couldn't understand it. I didn't want to talk about it because it wasn't an honorable death in combat, it was a cowardly death in escape. I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want them to know that Luke—Luke who I had trusted, confided in, and believed in, Luke who I thought I knew—had hidden something from me. That Luke wasn't who I thought he was.

I didn't understand what had happened that night. But I would find out. I would unlock those secrets Luke had left behind. But until I did, that last memory would forever haunt me.

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**There you have it.**

**I PROMISE to update soon, no more 2 month waits xD**

**I hope you liked it.**

**I doubt you did though.**

**This chapter was pretty bad xD**

**Well, better than nothing ^^**

**Review.**

**Or else Luke will come haunt YOUR dreams ^^**


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